The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-28
The PROMISE.

The PROMISE.
When the people murmured against Moses
and Aaron, their complaints were really
against Cop, who was leading them out of
their "house of bondage" But GoD ia won
derfully patient with his fretful children.
His provision for their comfort and blessing
continues through all unbelief and disobedi-
ence and is even made means of discipline
and education, encouraging faith and faith
fitness. In qualifying Moses to become the
leader of his people, GoD had made him to
dwell in this same wilderness, where, during
his forty years of pastoral life, he had become
familiar with the entire region and all that
pertained to or was characteristic of 1t. And
SO COP said to Moses, 1 will rain food from
heaven for you, and the people shall gather
it day by day, and by obedience to my law
shall their faith and confidence be proven"
The people were proven for their own sakes;
and the frequent trials of their faith was
means of discipline, teaching them to rely
confidently upon GOD, who, by His servant
Moses was surely leading them forth to
become strong nation and to possess the
land promised to their fathers. The lesson
of Divine providence is afterward declared:
" He fed you with mama, which neither you
nor your fathers had known, to teach you
that man lives not by bread alone, but by all
that GoD (JEHovAH) may provide, that when
you are prosperous and have become rich,
you may not forget in your pride Him who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage, and led you through
the desert, the great and terrible wilderness,
full of serpents, dragons and scorpions, the
parched and waterless regions; and who
made water spring out of the flint rock, who
fed you with mama, in the desert, to humble
you and try you and do good to you at last,
that you may never cay: My own power and
the might of my own hand has got me these
POSSESSIONS; but that you may ever be mind
full that it was COP who made you thus pros
porous, so to establish the covenant that He
had sworn to your fathers" deuteronomy
viii. 8, 11-18).
In answer to the complaints of the
Israelites Moses declared that in the even
ing and in the morning they should
perceive the glory of GoD (JEHovAH) who
had brought them out of Egypt. This
they would perceive in the marvellous supply
of food which would then be provided, the
like of which they had never before witnessed.
This declaration and promise of food by the
hand of COP appears to have been made
when the representatives of the congregation
or camp of Israel were assembled before Cor
att the place where was standing the pillar of
fire and cloud, the symbol of the Divine pres
ence and guidance. Aaron proclaimed to the
murmuring assembly what was Divinely re-
vealed to Moses-what GoD spoke to his soul
out of this sign of II 8 presence and rejection.
There in the wilderness Israel was made to
see and experience sign of Cons presence
with His people, and of His purpose to redeem
and protect them. What GoD spake to Moses,
and Aaron declared unto the people, was:
sat evening We shall eat flesh, and in the
morning We shall be filed with bread; and ye
shall know that am JEHOVAH your GoD."
What follows our Lesson relates that sat
even the quails came up and covered the
camp" and in the morning there appeared
on the surface of the desert a strange dew,
which the people had never before seen, and
which Moses declared was the bread which
COP had given them to eat. And so food by
GoD-rained from heaven, and a sign was
given that the people might be treasured that
Cop was with them, their Guide and Pro-
tector.
That the Israeltes were supplied with this
food during their prolonged stay in the will
derness is probable, and even positively de-
clared of the dew which is called "manna."
At later date we learn that the people tired
of the mama; and longed for flesh, and veg
etables and fruit, such as they obtained
abundantly in Egypt, when they we're again
supplied with quails, which were brought into
their camp by a storm of wind which JEHOVAH
sent forth plumbers XII. 81, 32). We are not,
however to suppose that this was their only
food supply. They had their focks and herds
to supply flesh and milk and butter. They
were in the way of intercourse with the Mid
ianites and other inhabitants of the country,
and of the caravan traders who may have
frequently passed through the desert. These
were additional supplies, providentially pro-
vided, and appear to have been available
when most needed. The annual migration
| or the birds may nave supplied the qualls.
Quails not infrequently pass over it 1.-THE
Sinai peninsula) in great migratory swarms on
their way from the interior of Africa, in the
late spring, when the Hebrews encountered
them. They fly as a rule in the evening, and
always before the wind, keeping near the
ground. Exhausted with their journey,
they are easily killed with sticks, or caught in
nets, or even by the hand. The Egyptian
monuments show such scenes, and the quails
being shared by bird-catchers with nets and
traps. They were eaten in many cases merely
| dried in the sun and sailed, without being
eooked-the monuments furnishing pictures
of the process. 1t was natural that the
Israelites should meet them in the desert of
| Sin, for they would follow the land in Africa
till the Red Sea was narrowed by the project
| ing Sinai peninsula, and take advantage of it
/ to cross TO Asia. Indeed vast fioeks are known
| to visit the Sinai deserts even now at the time